I pulled a Billy Beane last night tuning out the Cubs game in favor of running an errand, grabbing a workout and taking a long walk home enjoying the beautiful weather along Lake Michigan.

I had my ideas how Volstad vs. Gonzalez would play out. It wasn’t pretty. And seeing as how the night before I spent the evening wanting to pound my head against the wall watching the Cubs get thumped, I figured, why watch this horror flick again?

Like Beane (at least how he’s portrayed in the movie ‘Moneyball’) I checked-in on last night’s game infrequently with my cell phone. If something historically big was happening in the Cubs favor, I had a friend standing by ready to call, which, needless to say, didn’t happen.

The first update I read was this Tweet:

From 1918-current, #Cubs are 3rd team to allow 6+ HR in consecutive games, joining Expos 6/3-4/2003 and Rockies 6/29-30/1996

Thanks goodness I left the condo. Although, with full disclosure, I did check-in one more time–9-0 after seven-innings. Great.

One difference between Billy Beane and myself is I’ll return to watching the Cubs tomorrow. That’s what baseball addicts do, especially a Cubs junkie like me who whole heartedly enjoys analyzing pitchers, hitters and the strategy of the game–even though the Cubs lack the talent to truly compete.

But I’m certain Cubs fans not as cursed as I am by this disease have already tuned-out North Side baseball; many doing so before the Nationals series, and most after watching the Cubs get walloped in Game 1.

For the most part I’ve kept my piece as a full supporter of the Cubs rebuild. I’ve saved my gripes for what’s been, thankfully, only the occasional stretch of poor effort from the Cubs.

Of course, every team suffers a few pitfalls along the way of a marathon season, but it’s one thing to be able to recover from them and another when you’re in the midst of a 100-loss season.

When talent is lacking, like it is with Chicago, effort is all you got, and that’s what’s made this two-game stretch at Washington so irritating.

Both games have not only been blowouts, but also a saddening display of disinterest on the Cubs part. In fact, it’s been the worst showing of effort, execution and performance this entire season, perhaps, only rivaled by getting swept in Arizona in late June.

If the Cubs’ desire to play the game doesn’t improve over the final four weeks of the regular season, I’ll likely spend more time watching the Cubs Billy Beane style–favoring box scores over the big screen.

I wish that wasn’t the case. But quite simply, this Cubs team has been incredibly hard to watch–even on paper.